Ian Richardson, who died aged 72 in his sleep on Friday, was one of the most accomplished stage actors of his generation. Born in Edinburgh, he was a founder member of Peter Hall's Royal Shakespeare Company and was still winning admiring reviews last year when he appeared in The Alchemist at the National Theatre. It was, however, his TV roles which cemented his reputation, including Sherlock Holmes, the mole in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and - of course - the gloriously Machiavellian Tory MP Francis Urquhart in the BBC's House of Cards (it was no accident his initials were 'F.U.'). Here, screenwriter Andrew Davies, who adapted House of Cards from Michael Dobbs's novel, remembers the actor's finest hour:

When I wrote the part of Francis Urquhart I'd imagined him as a big burly bruiser with huge meaty hands who could just dominate situations. So when Ian was cast I wasn't sure if it would work. But within five minutes of watching him rehearse I knew we had the right man. He could do so much with just a little look so it was marvellous that we had three series to explore the character. In the end I could just write 'Urquhart gives us one of his looks' and that would save me writing a page of dialogue. We were very fortunate with the timing of the first series because Thatcher resigned in between the opening two episodes and people thought we had foreseen the event or had even been responsible.

I saw him about a year or so ago when we recorded commentary for the DVD of House of Cards. He was very amusing, telling stories about the time, but when the microphones were turned off he was quite disparaging about one or two people.

When John Major was Prime Minister I was invited to a 10 Downing Street reception during which he took me aside to talk about 'that wonderful show.' "I loved it," he said. "But I didn't like that bit at the end when Urquhart threw her [co-star Susannah Harker] off the roof. I would never do that."